summer cooking, mowing and a little music

July 6, 2009

So I have been a bit of a no show around these parts, as of late. And I don’t really have any good reason for that other than – summer. But now I am back from my Monday night class (the one where I get to read lots of young adult books), sitting here in my pajamas, and drinking hot mint tea. I don’t know what it is exactly about mint, but I tend to find it cooling even in the context of hot tea. Which reminds me, a few weeks ago just past the peak of strawberry season, my housemate made this incredible dish which consisted solely of sliced strawberries, a dash of sugar and crushed fresh mint. Along with being crazy simple, it was probably the best thing I have tasted all summer. Oh, that is one thing I have been doing as of late, taking more time to create full meals on my designated cooking night. Recent dishes include black bean burgers with cilantro-lemon mayo, whole wheat peach kuchen, homemade pizza, pasta salad full of olives, tomatoes, fresh basil and topped with Parmesan.

What else have I been up to? Well today I mowed the lawn for the first time (rather sad, considering I have been living at Cana for almost a year) and I used the push mower, which was actually rather fun, if not slightly like combing the grass.

The part I am referring too starts around 2:40, but seriously the whole clip is great.

In other news I recently bought Moby’s new album Wait for Me (it is what I was listening too before I went off to search down the above clip), for two main reasons. First it got a rather positive review on NPR (which I also recently became one of those sponsoring members of – the draw of the messenger bag was just too much for me) and second it was only 3.99 on amazon! I mean who sells a whole new CD of music for only 4 bucks, crazy sites, that’s woo. So I have listened to it for a few times and it is definitely more mellow and much more instrumental than Play (the other Moby album I own), but I really like it. That and Far by Regina Spektor(also quite good, and I would say a great follow up to her first album) make up my summer music purchases.

Well I think I want to go read a bit before bed, but here are some talking points for later.

I “saw” John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson perform a concert on July 4th in South Bend. My good friend Crystal provided the tickets, the pick-up from the train station and the hosting for the weekend, it was a blast (despite almost half the concert taking place in the rain).

I have read a bunch of books since my last YA post, so many that I may have to just reduce my next post to highs and lows

I am going to paint my room this summer, so far sunset beige for three walls and boston fern as the accent are winning out, but I still have to make up my mind.